Regeneration
therapy

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Regeneration therapy
is a therapy for stimulating the regrowth of an amputated
or destroyed body part. It goes beyond wound
healing (which implies that normal skin
grows over the wound site) by requiring reconstruction of a missing
structure, such as a limb.

Instead of waiting for natural regeneration,
which for adult humans is very limited, regeneration therapy seeks
to endow humans (and other animals of interest to humans) with the
regeneration capabilities of lower animals like salamanders.
A more moderate aim can be expressed as giving adults the
regeneration capabilities of young children.

The term regeneration therapy is often (seen
in e.g. a Google
search) used about tissue regeneration which doesn't involve
regrowth of a body part - such as regenerating the beta cells in
Langerhans
islets for curing diabetes.
This interpretation, not in accordance with regeneration
in biology, is not the subject of this article.

Contents

The
therapy

The first prerequisite for regenerative
growth is: The wound should be open - not covered with skin
or fibrous
tissues, as this would prevent regenerative growth. Debridement
implies removing surgically any such covering.

The second prerequisite is the availability
of a blastema
containing undifferentiated cells from which the body part can
grow.